000 - What Makes The Sky Blue

(Port Breeze Archipelago)

Currently, we are fighting against panicking monsters because of Tiamat is on a rampage.

Even though I said "we," I am completely unable to help them at all... I am not like Djeeta who has great agility, Katalina who has great sword skills, or even Rei who has much greater strength than anyone I have ever seen...

I can only watch from behind as they all try to protect me from the monsters or even the empire soldier who wants to take me back.

"Lyria, step back a little," I hear Katalina speaking to me.

I then listen to Katalina's words and step back a bit, further away from everyone that fighting against this many monsters.

I then turn to Rei and see him jumping towards Tiamat to destroy the crystal attached to Tiamat's chest.

I hope Rei can help Tiamat and destroy the dark crystal that is causing Tiamat to lose control...

Before long, I start to hear Tiamat's voice again, unlike before when she didn't respond at all when I talked to her.

It seems that Rei manage to destroying the crystal, and finally I can hear Tiamat's voice completely.

I immediately feel relieved because Tiamat is finally free from that crystal, but unfortunately, everything immediately becomes chaotic.

We didn't expect that when Rei destroyed the crystal, it would cause the crystal to explode and throw Rei far away.

"Reii!" I shout towards Rei as he is thrown through the Grandcypher in the air.

I then start running after him, hoping to stop Rei before he falls to the bottom of the sky.

Unfortunately, I cannot catch up to Rei...

I can see Rei starting to approach the edge of the Grandcypher, making me even more panicked.

'No...No...No...' I am very worried about Rei falling to the bottom of the sky.

But luckily, I can see Djeeta starting to run faster and she is able to catch Rei's hand and prevent him from falling.

But now they are both truly at the edge of the Grandcypher, with Rei hanging on while Djeeta holds him back.

The rest of us are still running towards them, hoping to help Djeeta pull Rei back onto the Grandcypher.

But unfortunately, Djeeta is not strong enough to hold Rei, and in the end, both of them fall.

Seeing both of them fall to the edge of the sky made me without thinking try to chase after them and jump.

I considered using Bahamut to help them, but Katalina seemed to know what I wanted to do because she immediately held me back when she saw me not stopping running to the edge of the Grandcypher deck.

"Lyria! What are you trying to do? Rackam will soon catch up to them, don't just jump recklessly."

"Rei!!! Djeeta!!!!" I still tried to release Katalina's grip and tried to help both of them.

I could see Rackam trying to control the Grandcypher to chase after them, but I was sure that the Grandcypher would not be able to reach them in time.

'Bahamut, I have to call Bahamut!' I began to focus on using my power and calling Bahamut.

"Hey, look, it seems like they're both okay. Rei is using his wings to stop their free fall," I heard Drang say.

Hearing that made me stop calling Bahamut and then I opened my eyes and ran to the edge of the deck to see them.

When I saw both of them floating in the air, it made me breathe a sigh of relief.

Now I just need to wait for Rackam to position the Grandcypher underneath them so they can fall here...

But then something unexpected happened...

I see both of them holding onto each other while their faces get closer and closer to each other.

Wait a minute. What are they going to do??

I stare at them without blinking at all, feeling my heart beating faster as their faces get closer to each other.

And finally, i see them both kiss each other...

And then I feel like something is squeezing my chest tightly.

This feeling is really hurt...

I really don't like this feeling...

I slowly start placing my hand on my chest, feeling my heartbeat pounding.

"Lyria? What's wrong?" Suddenly, I feel something holding my shoulder.

I turn to Katalina, trying to smile, "Yes... I'm fine... just... my chest suddenly hurts..."

I could see Katalina looking at me with a sympathetic gaze, in the end Katalina could only stroke my head while smiling.

I felt a little calm when Katalina did that... but my heart was still racing until I finally tried to push away those thoughts for now.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

(Grandcypher)

We are currently heading to Valtz Duchy island because of the letter left by Drang and Sturm.

In the morning when we woke up, Rei told us that Drang and Sturm had already left, leaving a letter for us.

I don't know why they left without telling us first, but they both have different goals from us.

Rackam said that our journey will take a few days, so we can relax first and enjoy the view of the sky.

But since that incident, I have been daydreaming and having trouble falling asleep.

Every time I sleep, I always dream that Djeeta disbands this crew and leaves with Rei to start a family.

I asked Katalina about all of this, but all she said was that I have to understand my own feelings.

I don't really understand all of this, but from the book Katalina read to me before about a prince who saved a princess, what I feel is love.

But if love is a suffocating feeling and something that squeezes my heart, then I don't want to feel that at all.

"Hahhh...." right now I am walking on the deck of the Grandcypher at night.

As usual, I find it hard to fall asleep, so I choose to get some fresh air on the deck of the Grandcypher.

I can see the moon and the stars illuminating this place.

I will never get tired of seeing all of this, it's all truly beautiful, so different from when I was in the Empire.

There was only a closed room and a very small window so I couldn't escape through there, and even though I looked out, all I could see was a another tower because I was being held in a very high palace.

"Ow..." suddenly I heard someone fall while I was enjoying this view.

It's not possible that someone sneaked onto the Grandcypher because Rei or Katalina would have sensed it.

I slowly approached the source of the sound and finally found the culprit.

It turned out to be Rei using both of his wings...

Seeing Rei there instinctively made me hide so he wouldn't see me.

I could feel my heart pounding again...

Right now, I didn't want to meet Rei yet, so since yesterday, I have always avoided him by going with Katalina.

I began to walk quietly leaving this place so that Rei would not know that I was here.

"Why are you sneaking around like that?" Suddenly, I heard Rei's voice, which startled me.

"You know, Lyria, that when we are close, we can sense each other."

Oh, I forgot about that... if Rei and I enter a certain range, we can sense each other's locations.

Not only that, but it seems like we can also sense each other's emotions, and I'm sure Rei knows I've been avoiding him since yesterday.

Because I was caught, I slowly came out of my hiding place and walked towards Rei.

I could see Rei's white hair reflecting the moonlight, making it slightly gleam, and those blue eyes of his that always make it hard for me to look away from them.

I could feel my heart pounding even faster as I approached Rei, hoping he wouldn't hear my heart pounding like this...

"Hello... Rei..." I tried to greet him.

However, I didn't hear any response from Rei; he just stared at me silently.

I became more restless and started to looking down as he remained silent and just looked at me with those blue eyes of his. Did he hate me for avoiding him???

I didn't want him to hate me. I couldn't bear the thought of him hating me and eventually leaving me or never speaking to me again.

I just needed time to calm my thoughts. I didn't mean to make him hate me.

Thinking about all of this made tears well up in my eyes, but I tried to hold them back from falling.

"Lyria," I heard Rei call out.

Then Rei walked towards me, making his wings disappear until he stood in front of me.

Suddenly, I felt something envelop me and hold me tightly.

I then realized that Rei was hugging me tightly. The suffocating feeling I had felt earlier slowly began to fade, replaced by another feeling that I didn't quite understand.

"Lyria, I will never leave you. You don't need to worry about that," I heard Rei say as he stroked the back of my hair.

Ahhh so he knows why I've been worried...

"I let you avoid me yesterday because I thought you needed time for yourself, but now i can feel that you're more worried and anxious than yesterday... I should have talked to you directly when I sensed your feelings yesterday so you wouldn't feel like this now."

I just listened silently to Rei's words while slowly returning his hug by placing both of my hands on his back.

"No... I shouldn't have kept all of this inside and should have spoken to you directly," I replied to Rei.

We both stayed in this position for a while; I didn't even know how long we hugged each other like this...

But eventually, Rei released his hug and held both of my shoulders while looking at me.

"So, is there anything you want me to do for you?" Rei asked me.

I wanted to say that I didn't need anything and just wanted to talk to him, but suddenly, I remembered the time when Djeeta kissed Rei.

Recalling that made me embarrassed, and I could feel my face burning; I was sure my face was turning red now.

"Hmm?" Rei sounded confused as I didn't answer and just felt restless.

"I...I-I want you to kiss me like Djeeta..." I spoke in a very low voice.

After saying that, I immediately felt very embarrassed and wanted to run back to my room; I hoped Rei didn't hear at all.

"Ahhh...." but it seemed like Rei heard me, and he lifted his right hand from my shoulder and held my chin.

He then lifted my face so that I could see his face.

Aaaaahhhhh I was sure he could see my very red face right now!!

"Haha... your face is really funny right now, Lyria," suddenly Rei started joking with me.

Hearing that made me pout and slightly annoyed because the atmosphere became a bit different than before.

But suddenly, I felt something on my lips that made my eyes widen.

I could see that Rei was kissing me now... Eh??? I'm being kissed???

My mind started to panic as I realized that Rei was kissing me, but the longer the kiss lasted, the more I forgot what I was thinking about at that moment.

All I was focused on now was returning Rei's kiss.